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Goodbye pennies!! :(

It's finally happened. No more pennies allowed or distributed as of today! I'm sad!! I'll miss them lol

How would you feel if pennies were discontinued? If you're Canadian, how do you feel about it??

As of Feb. 4, the Canadian penny will no longer be distributed. All cash transactions will be rounded up or down to the nearest five-cent increment.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider Jenelle Schneider , PROVINCE

Distribution of the Canadian penny ends Monday, but with about six billion of them in circulation it’s not clear how long the little coins will stay in use.

The penny is being retired because it actually costs 1.6 cents to produce and the federal government believes it can save $11 million a year by getting rid of the coins.

While the last penny was actually produced by the Royal Canadian Mint on May 4 and they’re not going to be distributed any more, Mint spokeswoman Christine Aquino said pennies remain legal tender and can still be used for purchases or exchanged at financial institutions.

But she couldn’t say how long it will take for the Mint to reclaim those billions of pennies.

“We have never done this in Canada,” said Aquino. “We estimate three to four years [to get pennies out of circulation].”

Without using pennies, merchants are expect to round the final cash purchase price up or down.

For example, something costing $1.01 or $1.02 will go down to $1 while a bill of $1.03 or $1.04 would go up to $1.05.

The most important thing for consumer to remember, said Aquino, is that “this is for cash transactions only.”

If you’re paying by credit or debit card, the price stays the same.

Probably most affected by this are merchants,

A recent survey by the Retail Council of Canada of its members found only 52.9 per cent were ready for the phase-out of the penny.

Just over half the respondents, 56.4 per cent, were going to implement the federal government’s guidelines for rounding prices and even more, 66.8 per cent, were going to do it manually at the point of sale.

Most retailers, 81.5 per cent, believed the changes would cost their businesses $5,000 or less.

Mark Startup, a vice-president in the west division of the Retail Council, said just 20 per cent of point-of-sale transactions these days are cash. He doesn’t think there will be any significant cost to consumers.

“The net impact for consumers is that it balances out,” said Startup.

If you happen to be stuck with a pile of pennies, you can always try improve your fortunes by pitching them down the nearest wishing well.

Probably a better bet is rolling them up and taking them to your bank to exchange for more usable cash.

Failing that, you can always donate your collection of coppers to a worthwhile charity.

Nationally, Free the Children has been collecting pennies in support of clean water projects around the world as part of its We Create Change campaign.

But there other charities looking for your pennies.

Accepting pennies, rolled or not, is the North Shore Resources Society, which has an office in Capilano Mall. More information is available at 604-985-7138.

The Small Animal Rescue Society of B.C. is holding penny drives April 21, July 21 and Oct. 21, but it’s also taking any loose change you might have, as well as returnable bottles and cans and even Canadian Tire money.

In Kelowna, Habitat for Humanity is also collecting pennies to support affordable housing.

But if you’re not inclined to roll your pennies up for the bank or donate them to charity, there’s always other uses — like tiling a floor.

The Standard Hotel in New York City has such a floor and there are tutorials online about how to make such a unique copper creation — at a blog called HappyRoost and at ehow.com.

I'm Canadian. I'm kind of ambivalent. I have tons of pennies around that were taking up too much space in my wallet, so I won't miss that. It does annoy me that retailers are allowed to decide whether to round up or round down to the nearest nickel... I'm not believing for a second that ANY of them are going to choose to round down, even if it's only one cent above the dollar. I would be happier if there was legislation forcing retailers to round down if it's under three cents above the dollar.

I'm Canadian. I'm kind of ambivalent. I have tons of pennies around that were taking up too much space in my wallet, so I won't miss that. It does annoy me that retailers are allowed to decide whether to round up or round down to the nearest nickel... I'm not believing for a second that ANY of them are going to choose to round down, even if it's only one cent above the dollar. I would be happier if there was legislation forcing retailers to round down if it's under three cents above the dollar.

I love pennies and if that happened in the states id be sad. I have saved pennies in a jar all mg life. Once my husband and I were so broke and I went into my jar and we took out enough money to pay for groceries for a week :)

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